One or more embodiments pertain to the art of protection circuits, and specifically, to the elimination of secondary fuses in high power solid state power controllers.
In today's environment, solid state power controllers (SSPC) are used to control power that is supplied to a connected load. The SSPCs can control the voltage and/or current supplied to the load, and can provide protections to power systems by identifying overload conditions and preventing short circuits in the system. SSPCs provide optimal restoration time after a failure occurs and is no longer detected. The rapid restoration time returns the operation of mission-critical loads to the power systems after the failure has been resolved. Power system applications that use SSPCs include the power systems of aircrafts and vehicles. Fuses and fuse links have been used to provide protection in SSPCs for shorted field effect transistors (FET) or other failure modes. This configuration can provide a backup mode in the case of an overcurrent condition. The SSPCs also provide additional functionality and performance advantages over other protection components. For example, other protection components such as breakers and relays are limited in their usability when compared to the versatility of SSPCs.